12/5/18 – Alan Matthews, Crosschecker Scout, Los Angeles Dodgers

Our guest speaker for this meeting will be Alan Matthews, “Southeast Regional Crosschecker Scout” for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Matthews grew up in Durham, was a catcher at Northern High School, and went on to journalism school in college before taking a job at Baseball America here in Durham in 2002. After meeting some people who worked in professional baseball through his position as writer/editor at Baseball America, the Rockies offered him a full-time scouting position covering Georgia, Alabama and North Florida in 2007. His first draft pick was Charlie Blackmon (second round, 2008) from Georgia Tech. Blackmon just appeared in his second All-Star game in 2018 and is still the starting Center Fielder in Colorado. Two other players he signed while with the Rockies, Jordan Patterson (2013, 4th round University of South Alabama) and Sam Howard (3rd round, 2014, Georgia Southern University) have since made it to the majors, as well